


Tonight, They Sleep

by auselysium



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, good Robert, not graphic but definitely there, trigger warning: discussion of self harm, trigger warning: discussion of self inflicted wounds, virtuous Robert, worried robert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 07:55:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5700859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auselysium/pseuds/auselysium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robert takes Aaron to the seashore to get him away from Emmerdale and the dark secrets he has confided in him.  His intentions, for once, are completely noble.  But then, Aaron knocks on his door in the middle of the night...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tonight, They Sleep

The house Robert had rented is little more than a bungalow, really. The small rooms are overwhelmed by sea-side kitsch decor in all its varying forms. Yet there is something comforting about the sun-faded paint in its foamy blues and greens. Something familiar about the creaking floorboards, its varnish worn away by decades of sandy feet.

It’s a place that in the heat of July would scream ‘summer fun by the sea’. But under the pale February sky, filled as it is with two aching and broken men, it gently suggests ‘escape to me’.

Robert had been sure Aaron would say ‘no’.

A weekend, away to the Yorkshire coast? Alone? After how well things had gone the last time they’d gone someplace isolated together?

But here they are, hours from home, sat on the threadbare but comfortable couch, playing Call of Duty late into the night as the surf crashes against the shore outside.

Aaron tosses his controller on the cushion next to him with a curse of frustration as his side of the screen goes red and his character is brought down again.

As Robert plays on, he can feel Aaron watching him with quiet hesitance. As if he’s not entirely sure why someone is showing him this ounce of kindness and why that person must be Robert.

“Another beer?” Robert asks, trying to deflect the attention away.

“I think we’re out, actually,” Aaron says. “Probably for the best anyway. It’s half 2.”

“Seriously?” Robert asks just as a sniper gets him from behind and his game comes to an end too. They share a commiserating groan.

“Best get to bed, then,” Aaron says, into the following silence, pressing his palms down his pants legs.

“You take the bathroom first. I’ll clean up this lot,” Robert says, gesturing to the collection of beer bottles and crisps bags on the table in front of them.

“Right, ta,” he stands up, gives Robert a meek smile. “‘Night then.”

Robert watches him stand slowly, moving his still healing body with caution. He listens to Aaron moving in the bathroom, running the faucet, brushing his teeth. After everything that has happened in the previous few weeks, hearing Aaron go through these small routine motions calms Robert more than he is willing to admit.

The door to the bathroom opens and closes. Then the door to Aaron’s bedroom does the same. Robert keeps himself busy for a while longer - rinsing bottles in the sink, checking all the locks and pulling the blinds. He waits until he hears the bedsprings creak and the light from under the door go out before he finally gets ready for bed himself.

Even though the whole place is a bit dated, the shower small, Robert had picked this location over others due to the large telly in the sitting room and the two distinct, separate bedrooms.

He wanted Aaron to know that right from the get go that this was most certainly not _that_ kind of trip. He had no expectations, only hope.

He lays back and listens to the ocean’s unrelenting rush and retreat. He thinks back to that morning when they’d arrived. Aaron had been silent as he’d stepped out of the car, letting the door slam behind him. He’d simply let the salty air fall across his face on a gust of winter wind, let the roaring surf fill his ears. His eyes had fallen closed then, and a look of peace had taken over his features.

If there had been any doubt in Robert’s mind before that this trip was exactly what Aaron needed - an escape from Emmerdale, away from lying Chas, from cheating Paddy and from that complete fucking monster of a father - that moment had erased all of it.

The knock on his door is so soft Robert only really notices it the second time it happens.

“Aaron?” He asks into the darkness.

“Can I...Can I come in?” Aaron’s voice is muted by the door and by his uncertainty.

  
“Course.” Robert says. He sits, turning on the bedside light just as Aaron opens the door.

He stands in the doorway for a moment. He cups his elbows with his palms, holding his arms awkwardly across his middle, shielding what Robert knows is hiding underneath the thin fabric of his shirt. They must still be bothering him. Even after the antibiotics and the bandages the doctors had applied, cuts that deep must still hurt like hell. But then, Robert supposes, that was the point.

“You alright?” He asks, his blankets pooled in his lap.

“Can’t sleep,” Aaron says with a shrug. He walks over to the dresser and peers at the painting in a wicker frame hanging on the wall. Lighthouses and seagulls and sunlight. Robert watches. Waits.

When Aaron says nothing more, he offers, “Do you need another pillow or…water…”

“Can I sleep in here?” Aaron says too quickly, his eyes cast downward.

Robert swallows. Speaks carefully. If Aaron is really asking what he thinks he’s asking, Robert needs him to say it.

“Yeah, I mean, we could drag your mattress in if you like…”

“No,” Aaron says, finally lifting his gaze to look at Robert with hollow, tired eyes. “Can I sleep…” He gestures meekly at the bed. “With you?”

As much as he hates himself for it, a thrill rushes through Robert’s limbs. “You’re sure?”

Aaron nods, his hands clenching by his side. “I really don’t think I should be alone right now.”

He needn’t say anymore. Robert pulls back the blankets, making room for him in the bed. As Aaron settles down, curling onto his side and plumping up the pillow just so, Robert is overwhelmed by the closeness of him. The smell of his skin, the movements of his limbs against the sheets feel so very familiar.

Robert shuts the light and lays back, stick straight on his side of the bed. He tucks his hands in close to his side and tries to keep his breathing steady in the quiet night.

“I’m not going to break into a million pieces if you touch me, you know,” Aaron says a few minutes later. His voice gruff and soft. He rolls onto his side to face Robert. “You finally got me back in your bed,” he says with a gentle snort through his nose though there is nothing funny about this moment. “You could hold me....if you wanted.”

Robert turns his head on the pillow and looks at Aaron intently. This isn’t a playful suggestion, masked in innuendo or flirtation. This isn’t even a request.

This is a need.

“This isn’t why I brought you here,” Robert whispers.

“I know,” Aaron says with a soft nod, fully encapsulating his trust in Robert’s words. Then the warmth of Aaron’s hand lands on the outside of Robert thigh. His touch moves steadily over Robert’s hip. His fingertips lift the hem of Robert’s tee-shirt just enough to brush the skin over his ribs as his hand moves all the way up his side to fall heavy on Robert’s bicep. All the while those precious blue eyes hold contact with his, brave, unwavering and sure. “But it’s why I came.”

Then, with muscle memory as deft as tying his shoes, Robert finds those remembered places on Aaron. Their bodies collapse together - chest to chest, long legs fitting between shorter ones. Aaron’s hand sweeps over Robert’s waist and Robert’s large palm cups Aaron’s jaw, his thumb brushing against his closely trimmed beard.

Their breath is clipped, close and mingling, seemingly one. The desire - _want, ache_ \- to take things further, to go where they both know this could so easily go, is there, not only in every nerve ending of Robert’s body but in very the depths of Aaron eyes.

It wasn’t meant to come to this. Truly. Not once did Robert imagine they might end up here when he’d asked Aaron to come away. But now that they are, Robert cannot deny how desperately he wants it.

But instead of allowing that perfect touch of lip to lips, that rush of heat that could shatter the earth beneath them but be solely a distraction and nothing more, Robert threads his fingertips through Aaron’s hair. Once, twice. He squeezes the tense muscles at the back of Aaron’s neck and just like he had that morning, Aaron lets his eyes fall closed. That same calmness finds him. Relief, gratitude. He sinks deeper into the sheets and further into Robert’s embrace.

There will be time for all those intense, passionate, beautiful things they are capable of later. Robert is sure of it now. Once more time has passed. Once scars, of all types - self-inflicted and otherwise, are on their way to being mended.

But tonight is not for those things.

Tonight, they sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for flaweswelove and this amazing prompt:  
> "Maybe a couple of weeks after next, Aaron can’t deal with everything and he knows he can talk to Robert. Every time Aaron and Robert try to spend anytime together they get interupted. Aaron asks Robert if they can go away for a few days, just them.
> 
> They have separate rooms but in the same (I have in my head log cabin.. but wherever) living space. So they can play xbox and chill. One night Aaron asks Robert if he can sleep with him in his bed .. Robert is taken aback.. but Aaron makes it clear that he just wants to feel close to Robert."
> 
> I did end up changing a few things, but I hope you like it!!


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